


Going Down in Flames (Ava's writing guide & fanfic challenge)

by Avdal



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Inappropriate Use of the Force, Other, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Porn with Feelings, Romance, Short Smut, Smut, Story Prompt, Tags Are Hard, Writing, Writing Exercise, and a writing guide too, avdals writing challenge, consider yourself challenged, for this one i really have no idea how to tag it, im posting both a fic and a writing challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-02
Updated: 2018-10-02
Packaged: 2019-07-23 13:43:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16160096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Avdal/pseuds/Avdal
Summary: In the weeks following Crait, Rey has been resolutely blocking Kylo out of her head and avoiding the call of their bond.  Never one to accept defeat graciously, the new Supreme Leader has had to resort to new methods to try and reach her.  At first he meets only failure, until one day a unique opportunity presents itself.(And I, your humble author, present both a writing challenge to the community and ramble for a really, really long time about writing craft!)





	1. Introduction to the Challenge

Author’s Note:

Well greetings everyone! Today I present to you a short little erotic ditty about Kylo and Rey being stuck in an elevator together (get the pun in the title? Subtle, right? Well it’s going to be that kind of story!)

 

This is more than just a short smut story, though. October 1st marked my 2 year anniversary to the world of fanfiction and fiction writing in general and of course I wanted to do something special to celebrate! Specifically, I’m hoping to tempt writers of all levels to do what they do best. To this, I’ve created a sort of writing guide for both establish fanfic writers well as complete newbie’s to help encourage them to join in on the Reylo community fun.

 

Okay, now the rest of these next four chapters are going to be me gibbering about various writing design and theory topics. The whole purpose of posting this is to encourage as many new Reylo fics (or really, any fanfiction writing at all!). Two years ago I was a newbie who wanted to write but was so, so unsure and nervous. Now I’m here to hopefully smooth the way for first time writers and, if you’re an experienced writer already, hopefully this guide can offer you some interesting shop talk. I like to chat a lot. You’ve probably guessed that by now. And I’ve read a TON of writing guides, books, blogs, you name it. Time to channel Corrine from Threadbanger: Let’s get started, shall we?

 

HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE (er, and by guide, I mean fanfiction…)

 

I’ve divided this “story” up into 5 chapters.  Chapter 1 is about to go into general story design topics, chapter 2 is where I present a challenge to any writers or writers-to-be out there. Yeah, that’s right. You’ve just been dared. Dared to write a Reylo fic. If I could figure out how to embed a video of the family on Arrested Development doing their chicken impersonations I would right now. Ka-kaka-chah! Challenged. Boom.

Chapter 3 is three different levels of outlines I’ve prepared. Feel free to skip it or not use them, but I’ve organized them in three levels of hand-holding as it were from a very brief talk about general structure of a 1 shot for the experienced writers to a more complete breakdown and an intermediate step.

Um, where was I? Right, chapter 4 is some more technical aspects of fanfiction writing like some tips I’ve learned about the blurb, keywords, etc and chapter 5 has some final notes and words of encouragement and writing-mom pearls of wisdom.

 

Since I’m anal like this, here’s a chapter index for easy reference:

1: general story design tips

2: Avdal’s Reylo Challenge TM

3: six outlines and how to use them

4: technical misc

5: Final Thoughts (as if you haven't heard me ramble on enough by this point, well here’s some more!!!)

 

PART ONE: GENERAL STORY DESIGN TIPS, TRICKS, AND TALK

 

1\. Choosing Topics

No matter how long or short your story is, you’re going to be spending on it a good amount of the most precious commodity on Earth: your time. The last thing you want to do is write a story you’re flaccid about. If you’re not interested in the topic, it WILL show. Some Do’s and Don’ts of choosing a topic:

 

DO pick something based on a scene you’ve imagined out. If it sounded fun and exciting in you head, it can be made into something fun and exciting on paper, too. (And by paper I do mean text on a digital screen but sure, you can print it out, too! Hard copy that bitch!)

 

DO pick something inspired by your favorite scene in a movie, TV, or another fanfic. The movie doesn’t have to be Star Wars. Lots of people are freaking obsessed with Pride and Prejudice or Phantom of the Opera. Got a favorite scene from somewhere else? Reylo it! But what about a favorite from another fanfic? Sounds dodgy, doesn’t it? Well I know I certainly don’t have to tell you to never, ever steal but yes I absolutely encourage you to take inspiration from other peoples works. And of course you can use my stories if you’d like. Here’s the key to the line between inspiration and duplication: identify what THEME of the work really appealed to you and use that to get your imagination into high gear.

Example (and there will be many examples throughout this guide): in PREY, written by one of my all-time favorite authors KagamiSorciere, the central THEME of the first 1/3 of the work was about an obsessed Kylo using the tether of their force bond to stalk Rey, but stalk her in a really obsessed romantic style. Got some real Grade A classic angsty romance tropes going on there. Find the core theme of your favorite story (or favorite scene from a story) and try to identify what exactly about it resonated with you.

 

DO write what you really want to write, even if it’s already been written 50 times. Or 500 times. Someone once said (and I can’t remember who) but “the only time you’ll ever read the story you really want to read is after you’ve written it yourself”. And, you know WHY there are 50 or 500 versions of that same topic out there? Because it’s a good one and people like reading it. Think about that.

 

DON’T write something just because it’s popular even though you’re not super into it. Remember DO #1? Don’t be flaccid about your topic. You want to be hard and girthy for it.

Example: when I first started considering commercial writing, the ‘50 Shades Bad Boy Billionaire extorts an innocent virgin’ schtick was HUGE. I thought about trying to cash in on that but… I did and still do find it distasteful. But if you’re into that, damned well right it. Be turgid and true to yourself.

 

DON’T drive yourself into fits trying to find the “perfect” topic. Pick a topic that appeals to you now and write it with passion. Remember this at all times: writing should be FUN. Have fun while writing it and it will show.

 

DON’T judge your topic as “Good or bad”. Continuation of the above, but don’t ever hold yourself back because you think an idea is stupid.

Example from Going Down: I wanted to write this guide and I wanted to write a sex scene where Kylo ties Rey up with some loose wires caused by the aftermath of his lightsaber tantrums. Is that a stupid idea? Um, yeah, kinda. But who cares? Sexy fun and if it IS a stupid idea, play off that! Let you characters let you know how dumb this is and let them have their fun with it! (note from future self: that part didn’t actually make it into the final story! But it _started_ the idea for the story so good effort still!)

 

2: Writing on controversial topics

A few months ago there was a big thing on Tumblr about an author vs a group of people who though his/her works shouldn’t have been written. I’m not going to say anymore about that or give my opinion either way, but if you are a new author or, like me who has some experience below their belt but is conflict-adverse, I would recommend you avoid touching on any of these topics (and I mean even writing on them at all):

racial issues

anything ending in -philia

 

more iffy topics that I personally tend to avoid are:

incest

non-con

adultery/cheating

 

With these three, I think you’re kinda guaranteed to get a few negatives comments/reviews. The more grey area is softer non-con or dub-con which, if you tag correctly and maybe include a warning note, you might be alright with. Or you could just write the story you want to but be aware that you may take some heat for it. If you’re fine with that, go forth and write, young scribe.

Also remember that you can both moderate comments or post on AO3 anonymously ([link1](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/anonymous) and [link2](https://www.reddit.com/r/FanFiction/comments/71epei/posting_fic_to_ao3_anonymously_not_orphaning/)). Some people may consider that last option a cop-out, but I disagree. IMO the Anonymous group is open to anyone who wants to post on it for whatever reason. You do you.

ps. IF you ARE going to be writing about any of the above topics, please please please don’t advertise your email, social, or tumblr. Tumblr especially will come after you for no reason other than the thrill of churning up some blood in the water. Keep it on the DL.

 

3) Erotica, Romance, and what rating?

Most Reylo stories are some shade of romance. It kind of goes with the whole Reylo thing and not just a “Star Wars Story”. We’ve got every shade to choose from, from dark and kinky fuckathons to sweet adventuremances with plenty of plot fighting for screen time with the flirty gazes.

How do you know which one to write about? Well you gotta go with your gut. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: WRITE THE STORY YOU WANT TO READ. If you’re excited about a sweet and wholesome Holiday romance, do that. If you want to see how many inches Rey can take (or Kylo, we don’t discriminate here!) then f’ing hell write that and let me know when you post it!

 

 _Write whatever you feel inspired by_. I can’t stress that enough, so I’m going to stress that some more.

 

But what about rating? Well, here’s where the rub comes in: probably not nearly as many people are going to read you G rated Christmas Romance as those who will want to read “Filled to the Hilt: One Jedi Orphan's Journey to the Impossible”. Sorry. I know it sucks. Write what you want to, but do be aware that the higher the rating the more viewers you’ll probably attract.

Personally, I don’t typically write G-T rated. Like at all. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t an audience for it. For instance, I was feeling in a silly mood so I wrote ‘A Game of Strategy, Not Chance’ which is a dumb-as-anything fluff piece. While it’s not super popular, it’s gotten all around warm fuzzy reviews from people who thought my silly nonsense was funny. I’ll take it! Or the number of people who though DICK in ‘On Ben’s Knee” was a hoot. IDK why, I really don’t, but I’m glad you liked it!

So, even if you write sweet and off market, you’ll find yourself an audience for your piece.

 

Now for the rating:

E reigns king in popularity, followed closely by M. The difference is subjective and differs by the site. For me, E pieces are extremely explicit and graphic. M pieces can have exactly the same theme and plot, just toned down in the detail of the descriptions. On AO3 and Tumblr anything goes (remember to tag!!!), and fanfiction.net is M or less. I talk a little more about the different sites in section 4: technical aspects.

 

T ratings seem to have a smaller but dedicated audience. These are the people who really want a fun story. Not that M or E fics don’t have plot, but T is a good zone for fics with some swexiness and a whole lot of non-romance things going on too.

G is a tough sell, TBH. A lot of people don’t read them at all, I guess because they’re perceived as dull and like a chaste Christians’s Children show in the midwest? That’s at least the perception I’ve noticed. If you want to write a G fic, my suggestion would be to do a search for Reylo fics with a G rating, then sort by either hits or comments/kudos. Find the fics that have the most viewer response, and read their comments to get a feel for what people liked about them. I know this is slightly contradictory to my whole “write what you want to write” platform, but this is about market research. You want to find that sweet spot where your preferences and reader’s preferences overlap.

 

4: Getting down to business: plotters, pantsers, planning, and pre-planning

 

Plotters and pantsers: if you have any idea what these mean, you’ve probably read a writing book before! It seems like every single design theory book talks about this in its own way: do you outline the plot of your stories before you write (plotters), or do you fly by the seat of your pants (get it?) and let the story evolve as you go?

 

Like everything else in the world of writing life, there are many shades on each side as well as middle ground where you wear your plotting pants with pride. Rachel Aaron, author of the excellent resource ‘2k to 10K’ is very very much a plotter. She writes very detailed plots, world building, character sheets, timelines, you name it. I plot too, though not nearly to the level that she does. On the other side are the pantsers like Ray Bradbury and Stepehn King. They like to be surprised by their own stories and feel it creates a more organic, natural, and less forced piece of fiction if they have only a general whiff of direction in the air before they put fingers to keyboard.

So who’s right? Do plotters suffer from the rigidity of their own construction while pantsers are free and expansive? Or do plotters benefit from actually knowing what they’re about to write about while pantsers universally are going to have a really, ahem, interesting time editing down their whimsy? Stephen King once said in an interview that his 300k books started off as 600k epics of more nonsense than coherence and he literally had to prune and shape his story down by half. Half being 300k. That’s like 6 normal, non-Stephen King novels. That’s like half a year’s writing for me. The thought of having to scrap that much makes me… itchy in strange places. Like the back of my cerebellum.

But, of course, that’s the method that works for Stephen King and he seems to do quite well for himself.

Again, there are no right answers.

 

For the sake of my upcoming challenge in the next chapter, we’re not going to worry too much about plotting since we’re going to be doing a 1 short shortie. But, if you’re curious to learn more about both plotters and pantsers and plotting pantsers, go get my #1 all time bible of writing guides that I keep talking about in my stories: Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell. He has a whole detailed breakdown of different techniques to make the most out of both styles. And the book is less than $10 and pretty much the essential guide I’ve used for the last 2 years.

 

5: The importance of preplanning your scenes:

This applies to both plotters and pantsers and is probably the key thing I’ve learned the hard way over these last two years: before you write a scene, think about what’s going to happen. Seems freaking obvious, doesn’t it? Your characters have to be doing something, if that something is starting wistfully out of window thinking statically about what might have been. No matter what sort of planner you are, I recommend spending 5 minutes or even just one minute sitting down quietly and scribbling notes about what actually happens during the scene. I usually separate the physical and mental, but that’s up to you and your own unique style. I don’t think I explained this too clearly, so here are some individual scene examples:

Example 1 from a chapter of No Rest for the Wicked: Rey wakes up next to a severely injured Kylo and tries to leave him until the power of their bond and her own good conscience forces her to return to his side. Key events: wake up, reaction to Kylo laying there, leaving the crash site, struggling in the jungle, “sensing” Kylo, feeling compelled to return, reluctantly returning all the while kicking herself for doing so. Note to self: focus on the inner roller coaster of emotions Rey is feeling. Estimated length*: 2k.

 

That “scene” pretty much covers a whole chapter. And the * is because I write long. Like looong, long. For many authors this might be 750-1200k or less.

 

How about a shorter example? Here’s the outline for a a fictional conversation I just made up: (let’s say this is a fic where Kylo’s kidnapped Rey and she sees an opportunity to escape, modern AU). What happens: Rey is restrained in the passenger seat but has gotten free of her handcuffs. Kylo steps out of the car to get (something) and she sees the keys in the ignition and debates if she can risk driving off. Key events: testign the slackness of the handcuffs, testing range of movements (can she reach the wheel?), looking around to see where he is, debating on if she can do it or even if she SHOULD. Note to self: to keep up the pace of this scene, have some inner dialogue but use short sentences. Intersperse with action beats. Scene ends with Rey deciding not to leave and Kylo returning. Note to self: maybe this was a setup by him to test er? Maybe her decision to not leave at this point will feature later on in the story? Estimated length: up to 500 words.

 

Okay, so the above is just a madeup example, but hopefully you see how I personally would pre-type plan this scene. And would also have an overall plot which would show how this scen would fit in with everything.

 

Third example for the pantsers, this time it’s just a super short action plot of the above scene: Rey breaks free of her handcuffs, Kylo leaves car, Rey decides if she can/should drive off without him.

Aaaand, end that plot note. If you’re a pantser, I think that having a hint of direction will help with not spinning your wheels and staring at he blank screen figuring out what happens.

 

A note for serious plotters: I tried doing really detailed scene breakdowns when I first started writing. I found they inhibited me and I spent more time wrestling with the outline then I did trying to make the prose work. Some people (ala Rachel Aaron) might not have this problem. If you’re new to writing, why not try writing a scene in three or four different ways and see what works best? Just write one paragraph just for practice. Here’s a prompt:

post Last Jedi, Kylo and Rey have to cuddle for warmth in a cave (since this is probably the trope to end all tropes). Why? Don’t matter. Try writing it several different ways and start with completing this sentence: “Kylo unzipped the sleeping bag- their _only_ sleeping bag- and” (and take it from there!)

Go on. You have a 100 word maximum limit. Try writing it three or four times, starting with the least/pantsiest minimum of outlining and working your way more detailed on the next rounds.

 

5\. Conflict: the core element of any work of fiction, and the AROC

Writing guidebooks are peppered with examples of what not to do in a scene and they all typically distill into a character facing no conflict or opposition. Or a character having no goal and therefore no conflict or opposition.

Let’s Reylo this example up: Rey is hungry. She goes to where she stores food at her ATAT and pulls out a portion. She prepares it, eats it, then goes about her day. Next scene is her off into the desert scavenging, feeling less hungry.

Right… so this scene suffers from several things, first and foremost being that, unless Rey is about to get struck by a severe case of morning-munchies based botulism, the scene is useless filler that served no purpose in the greater story. How to fix this?

A. cut it out. Don’t need it? Take it out. B. do what the movie did and use Rey’s hunger to show her plight in life and bring the audience onto her side. C. add in some conflict. Just as Rey is about to pour water onto her portion, an intruder busts in and tries to take it from her. Or the portion was secretly a love portion planted by Kylo to make her fall head over heels with the next person she sees and, oh wait, was that a knock at her door? Okay, I’m being silly with the last one, but you get the idea: make the scene interesting or else.

 

Conflict conflict conflict. First establish what the character wants (Rey wants nummies) and then put something in opposition to it (Kylo wants Rey).

 

AROC. This is the acronym I build all scenes on. Action, Reaction, Objective, Conflict.

Action leads to reaction. This is the physical “what goes on in a scene”. Kylo traps Rey in an elevator with him. They fight then bump like bunnies in the springtime. There are going to probably be many cycles of this throughout every scene. Action: Kylo smashes the control panel on the elevator, breaking it. Reaction: Rey is fucking pissed off. Action: Kylo gets horny (yes, it is going to be that classy kind of story, how did you guess?). Reaction: Rey notices his boner, has a reaction to it. Action: They go at it. Reaction: well, spoilers for ch4!

So we’ve got the AR of AROC, now for the OC: objective, conflict. This is the emotional, mental part of the scene and for every AR is an OC. Objective: Kylo wants to talk to Rey, conflict: Rey is still pissed off about Crait and now even more pissed that he cornered her here. (This set leads into Kylo smashing the computer panel). Objective: Kylo realizes that they’re trapped in the elevator… and no one is watching. Conflict: Rey realizes that they’re trapped in the elevator and no one is watching. Sometimes have your characters have ostensibly the same OC, this sort of miscommunication parallel is a staple in comedy and it can breathe some life into a scene if you feel like it’s dragging.

 

So, whether you’re a plotter or a pantser, keep the AROC in mind as you write. Frequently ask yourself:

What action is happening? What will be the reaction to the action? What is the character’s objective? What conflict or speedbump will they encounter to that objective?

 

If you;’re a plotter, chances are you’ve already got a few ideas about the AROCs, if you’re a pantser than remember AROC as a guide to keeping your scenes on track if you feel them wandering out of the plot corral too far.

 

6) On Writing Faster

 

Storytime: when I wrote my first fanfic 2 years ago, Bad Habits of a Vivid Imagination, can you guess how long it took me to write this 5k wank piece? One month. One full month. That comes to a little over 150 words a day, and you’d better believe I wasn’t working on it every day in a productive manner. I was focusing on editing as I go, agonizing on every word, and I had an intense and crippling fear of being judged for writing smut. That last part I’ve grown out of, if you haven’t guessed. I was trapped in that circle of self doubt merged with not knowing what I was doing or exactly what I was trying to accomplish. Don’t do that. Write smarter, and you’ll write faster too. Guaranteed.

 

There are a lot of different techniques for writing faster, but the basic core idea is to just keep writing and write consistently. Here are some tricks that I’ve collated over the two years since, some of these I use and some just didn’t work out for me but results will very much vary:

write first thing in the morning, within 5 minutes of waking up when your mind is still in a semi-sleep state. Write for 10, 15, 30 minutes.

Set yourself a daily quota. If you feel you can write 300 words a day, make your quote 10% more at 330. Now round it up to 350. 350 words a day is your quota. Or 500 becomes 550 which rounds up to 600. Etc.

Set yourself a WEEKLY quota. Say 2,000 words a week or a little less than 300 a day. This way, if you skip a day, you can make up for it later on.

Write in pomodoros. These are 25 minute section of non stop DISTRACTION FREE writing. Turn off your wireless. Turn your phone to silent, face down. Better yet, put your phone in another room. If being away from it for 25 minutes seems daunting, seek help. Joking on that last part since I’m a technophobe, but also not really :P. Take 5 minutes off between each pomodoro. That 25 write, 5 break, 25 write, end just under an hour. Start with doing one of these “sets” a day and build up.

Buy an Alphasmart. The Alphasmart Neo and Neo2 were clunky writing devices from a decade ago with a built in screen and very limited functionality. They’re no longer being made, but you can get one on ebay for around $20. They’re actually very comfortable to type on and they have limited functionality that only allows them to type and nothing more. No internet. No spell corrections. Editing is a pain. They let you type and produce and not do anything else. Get it now?

Yes. Exactly. Forced, distraction free writing productivity. If you’re brand new to writing you can pass until you know if writing is for you, but for anyone who writes even occasionally it’s one $20 investment that can make a HUGE differences in your wordcount output. It did for me, at least.

Write to music? Very personal, some people can’t stand music at all. For me it depends on the scene. I love Solar Fields (ambient chillout music) for most scenes, for fighting or action scenes including sexytimes I go for heavy metal like Nine Inch Nails and Rob Zombie, and for dialogue nothing at all. Check out Solar Fields, Klaus Schultze and GMO vs Dense on youtube. That’s my kind of music but again results vary.

 

So how much DO I write now? I debated if I should answer this or not (this being a question I proposed at myself), but now I average 4-6 pomodoros and anywhere from 600-1400 words a pomodoro. Big range there but certain scenes just flow much better than others. So anywhere between 2400 to 8400 a day. I don’t write every day, but I try to. Again Rachel Aaron’s 2k to 10k is a great resource. The closest I’ve ever gotten was around 9200 in day. For me, planning is everything, but no matter if you’re a plotter or pantser I believe that, if you’re finding it hard or unpleasant to write, something is wrong with the scene or possibly the whole story itself. The exception being if you’re a brand new writer and then… well, like me with my mighty 5k in a month, there’s a chance that the first stepes may just be like pulling teeth and they suck and you hate them and you just ave to power through. Or not. Don’t psyche yourself out, and remember the mantra: write what you want to read. Writing should be fun, not a competition.

And, speaking of a competition, Ms. Rachel Aaron herself posted her writing numbers and she actually writes more than I do but a lot slower. Her 2-pomodoro-hour cycles get her around 1100 but she writes more of them.

 

If you’re doing the writing challenge in ch2 of this I’ll talk more about the word count, but for now just focus on telling yourself to write “a little more”. If you only write for half and hour once a week, make it 35 minutes. Put in a conscious effort of just writing a teeny bit more each time.

 

And a final tip on writing faster, if you’re writing a piece over several writing sessions (ie. you don’t finish it all at once) try the age old trick of ending mid sentence. That way, when you start up next time, you’ll already have an exact startoff point and once you finish the sentence hopefully you’ll just keep on going because no one likes a sentence that just breaks off mi

 

7\. what is a good length for fanfiction?

Whee, more purely subjective narcissism! Here’s my own preferences for what I like to read and write.

For 1-shot fics, 3500 feels like a good spot. Sometimes up to 6k but I feel my mind usually start to wander after the 5k mark. A great example of a long 10 one shots I freaking loved was A Lady Shall not Promenade Alone by KagamiSorciere https://archiveofourown.org/works/8139538. It’s 10k of pure delight. Like delightful really is the best word I can think of to describe it.

For multi-chapter pieces (beyond the scope of this challenge), I’ve identified 2 main categories I like to read plus an outlier First I like the 30k, 7-ish chapter novellas as seen in the fabulous (or dare I say… delightful?) series Monsters are We All by DragonWhispers. This length is perfect for my short attention span. You can tell a full story at novella length, but it’s fast paced enough that there’s literally no time FOR the story to drag. Perfect!

Next is the proper novel length that’s common in commercial ebooks. 50-75k. I’m trying my darnest to become a commercially successful author at the 50k at $2.99 or 60k+ at $3.99 is a very standard and accepted ratio. For fanfiction of course it’s free (we don’t want to be sued, right?) but there’s a very stable audience at the 50-75k word count and this gives you all the storyarc and character development that’s possible with novells but now with some more room for bells, whistles, and pretty-pretties.

 

Finally there’s the “long ass book” wordcount of 75k and up. I’ve written one story at this length, No Rest for the Wicked, and it’s both my most popular story and also one that I’ve decided is just too dang long. However, some of the greatest Reylo fics ever devised have been of this epic length. I’m going to have a whole list of reading recommendations at the end of ch5, but some immediate standouts at this length are:

[PREY](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5610664/chapters/12926704) by KagamiSorciere

[What the Hell is Wrong With Kylo Ren?](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6637030/chapters/15185014) By Tuli Azzameen

[Commemoration](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6480097/chapters/14832745) by wineandpotatochips

[A Collision of Stars](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5704957/chapters/13142200) by dustoftheancients

 

 

8\. Where I gibber about handling exposition

Exposition is a very tricky part of writing that even some of the most seasoned of mega name writers like Jonothan Kellerman occasionally lock horns with. For my writing challenge I give very specific instructions on how to handle exposition in your challenge 1-shot, but for this general writing tips section what I can say is that less is 10000% more. Have faith in your readers. You don’t need to tell them Rey is a brave but lonely character. We’ve seen it ourselves and, far better than stating is, is throw Rey into a scene with conflict (that all important C word) where she gets to show off her bravery and loneliness.

Show not tell. This has been beated to death by fiction books ever since the Godfather of Showing Dashiel Hammet first Sam Spaded his way into the world of popular fiction. That world was never the same and it was absolutely for the better.

So I’m not going to go on anymore about exposition and showing other than to emphasize that we are discerning readers as well as writers. Trust us to read between the lines.

 

9\. Scared of smut?

Well I sure was, at least of writing it! A big part of what held me back from writing Bad Habits of a Vivid Imagination in, oh, under a month was a fear of smut writing. I'd certainly read enough, so I knew the subject matter wasn’t the problem, but something else was.

For me I think it was a fear of being judged. So, if you find yourself crippled by smutparalysis, what can you do? First reassure yourself, that whatever you’re writing, there’s already a far filthier, nastier, more debauched version of it out there that someone’s already beaten you to. Then consider trying what I did with my third story, the uber-smutty[ A Vulgar Display of Power](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8574151). For this fic I unleashed my characters and let them be as vulgar and explicit as they wanted to be. Which turned out to be pretty damned E rated. I wrote basically the filthiest thing I could ever imagine and I wasn’t even sure if I would publish it, so go ahead, try that: write an explicit sex scene, but write it true to yourself. Don’t be afraid of really getting into those descriptions of what’s going where and how, good or bad, it makes the characters feels. For some people, you may naturally find a milder more vanilla happy place. That’s perfect and you will absolutely have an audience because not everyone wants to read about insertions, sounding, cumshots, everything going everywhere. Some people just want to read a sexy but not necessarily blow by blow accurate account of Kylo and Rey getting it on.

Or you could spend you 1-7k wordcount writing a loving description of Rey getting a facial and detail where each rope of sploodge lands exactly on her body. You do you (and again let me know if that IS what you write because now I kinda want to read that scene!)

 

 

Ahem. Yeah. Smutparalysis. Write it smutty and then you have 3 options:

save it or delete it if you feel compelled. But please save it but never publish it if you don’t want to.

Publish it. Publish that bitch. I did with Bad Habits and I honestly didn’t read the reviews until 3 days later and when I was thoroughly drunk because I was so scared of bad reviews. Does it help if I tell you I’m still waiting for the first one? All my reviews were positive. That helped me a lot.

Option 3: publish anonymously. Again that’s what the anonymous collection on Ao3 is all about. Publish it there. If you want to use other sites like tumblr or fanfiction.net, create a new throwaway account. Leave no traces of who you are and I think you’ll still be pleased with the results.

 

10\. a brief history of not editing

You know Marcel Proust? This world famous author drove himself into fits of alcoholic, agonizing, abject misery trying to find the right word for every part of every sentence. He’s also regarded as possibly the best wordsmith in the history of all time, but don’t do that to yourself. Write fast and with passion and if it’s kinda clunky who cares? Writing is entertainment, not a battle.

 

Do you know who my personal favorite author is? Well, me neither, but one of my top 3 has to be Dean Koontz. He is the only author I would ever allow to write at me a 3 page long paragraph. His choice of words and sentence structure and sheer eloquence are breathtaking. He is a true master of his craft. A Proust of the modern era.

He also edits as he goes, making sure each paragraph and sentence within it is “right” before he moved on. To quote my other mentor James Scott Bell: “that way lies madness”. Don’t do it. Don’t do that to yourself, ESPECIALLY if you’re anything less than a New York Times selling author. Trust me, there are more pleasant ways to lose your mind. Like drinking absinthe or chronic masturbation. Going around the bend from self editing isn’t the way.

 

So when DO you edit? Well I can say that,as I‘ve written more, my stories need less and less editing. I generally give it a pass after I finish where I run a spellchecker and do a readthrough. Sometimes, if it’s just a dumb one-shot, that’s all I do. Sometimes I’ll spend upwards of maybe 3 hours editing, but that’s pushing it. There are whole books just about editing, two I like are:

Revision & Self Editing by (guess) James Scott Bell

and

Revision is a Process by Catherine E McLean

The McLean book is definitely more targeted toward novels, be aware, and she also used an annoyingly big font size (ahem!) so only get it used at a good price. Still she has some good points in there, so it’s worth checking out.

 

Just remember this mantra: you gotta have something to edit. Write first, edit later.

 

11\. Just do it: the Oxford Comma

Soap box time: the American AP style says not to use the Oxford comma, the rest of the world says one, two, three is written like that not one, two three. Be better than the AP, that obnoxious thing we’ve all had to do for sources in college. Ask yourself why be left behind from the rest of the world as it moves on? Hashtag metricsystemworksbetter.

Or, as Chuck Palahniuk ( the un-adjectifiable author of Fight Club) so eloquently exampled in his spirited defense of why he uses the ‘Oxford C’, spot what’s wrong with this sentence: “I once had dinner with Nelson Mandela, an 800 pound gorilla and a dildo enthusiast.” Probably shouldn’t be calling Nelson Mandela any of those things, just sayin’.

So use the Oxford Comma. Be part of the solution, not the problem.

 

12\. If you get stuck (the ubiquitous writer’s block section)

Every writer gets writer’s block. Period. You could argue poor, tortured Proust never did NOT have writer’s block. Do a search on “overcoming writer’s block” and you’ll find everything from taking a walk and doing people watching to laying upside down and letting blood flow into your head.

I wish I could say I had a solution to writer’s block. I don’t. I really don’t. But, sure, try this:

have a cup of strong coffee

watch your favorite scene in the SW movies

spend 20 minutes re-reading your favorite SW fanfiction

by now your coffee should have kicked in so get typing while you’re all hopped up!!!

Write the scene you’ve always wanted to write. Better yet, write the scene you’ve always wanted to read. Make it sexy, dumb, poorly written, and even more riddled with type-os than this fic. Have a blast while doing it. Is it going to suck? Probably. Do you have to publish it anyhow? Nope. But now you’ve just had fun and that’s 100% of the point of writing fanfiction.

 

Hope that helps and good luck! Now are you ready to be writing challenged? Because you’re about to get writing challenged.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


	2. the Challenge

So girls and boys, now are you ready? I’m issuing this challenge not so much as a competition but rather as an encouragement to get out there and WRITE. The beauty of this fandom is that it is has such a thriving and supportive and engaging community. It’s one of the busiest fandoms on either AO3 or Tumblr and I think that will continue on, albeit in lesser amounts, well after the final movie of the trilogy.

So, this challenge is for both established Reylo authors and anyone who wants to try to write but never quite pulled the trigger. And the rules would work for any fandom, really, so if there’s something else that’s captured your creativity go out and write for that too! Here’s what you need to do:

 

Rule 1: write a minimum of 300 words a day. That comes to about one page of a Word document. If you can write faster, write faster. If not, aim for as close to 300 words a day as you can.

 

Rule 2: And you have to write every single day. Trust me, there’s time. 5 minutes here or there, or dedicate an hour to get down to business.

 

Rule 3: We’re going to be writing one chapter one shots. If you’re bursting with more ideas than a 1-shot, write those down and keep them simmering on the back burner to turn your 1-shot into a series. IMO series do just as well if not better than multi-chapter pieces, and they offer greater flexibility because you can have more time jumps or slightly different worlds and events etc.

But, for this challenge, we’re doing a relatively short and self-contained one-shot. It can be a little open-ended if you like, just make sure the ending is satisfying on it’s own and not a super cliffhanger.

 

Rule 4: So what’s the challenge word count? I’m going to give a big range of 1,200 – 7,000 words. Very compelling stories can be written in just over 1k of words, and I find that anything longer than 7k can be tricky to maintain momentum if you’re not an experienced writer. Of course, if you ARE experienced and suffer from the same sort of word diarrhea that I do, write as long as you want to, as long as it’s still a 1-shot.

 

Rule 5: Your story should contain only one primary scene. Don’t feel like you have to do too much. A single conversation interspersed with action can easily span a thousand words. A love scene (and I’m hoping to see lots of those), well… we don’t want to rush our happy couple, do we? If, when you’re figuring out your story, you find yourself gravitating to having more than 1 major scene, ask yourself why? I think there’s a good chance the whole first scene can be dropped and you’re thinking too much about the exposition. I’ve already touched on this in ch1 of this story, but remember that you don’t need all that exposition. We know who these characters are, we know the universe, we know why they’re in opposition with each other. Which brings me nicely to rule 5…

 

Rule 5: You’re only allowed 5 sentences and up to 150 words of exposition. This is the backstory. The static part of a story where you tell the reader where and why the characters are at their starting point.

This is the boring stuff. The stuff that makes readers yawn and scroll until something actually HAPPENS on screen.

If you find yourself absolutely unable to write without knowing the how and why of before the curtain rise, here’s what to do: write a letter to _yourself_ explaining in ugly, bullet point notes how the characters came to be. Keep it at 300 words or less (and really, it should BE less). Make it factual and write it in such a way to get your own thoughts in order but not anything anyone would want to read (hence the ugly bullet points) so you don’t feel tempted to break rule #5 and actually put this in. This is purely for your own notes.

So, 5 sentences, 150 words. In chapter 4: technical aspects I’m going to give you some tips on your opening paragraph, and you can probably guess that your 150 words of exposition aren’t going to fit in there. It’s best to sort of weave them in with the rest of the narrative, ala:

In TFA audiences didn’t immediately see in Rey’s first scene that she was both: a lonely scavenger who was force sensitive and whose parents had abandoned her. No, we only saw one of those three at first and then the other two were revealed in the narrative at later stages, right?

 

Rule 6: spend 2-15 minutes pre-writing

This goes back to the pre writing I talked about in ch1 and then the outlines coming in ch3. You need to know what you’re about to be writing about. The level of detail that you need to know before you start typing will vary on many factors, experience and personality, but for this challenge you’re going to spend 2-15 minutes scratching down some notes on what’s about to happen before you write it. And then you write it.

 

Rule 7: maximum of 10 minutes editing once a day

Ideally you won’t be editing at all until you type THE END but, if you absolutely must, you are allowed to spend no more than 10 minutes at the end of every day editing what you have done. No more. No more often. Then, after THE END, take however much time you need. Try to edit openly and don’t re-edit the same paragraph again and again. Wide strokes then medium strokes then publish.

 

Alright, them’s the rules:

300 words a day minimum

write every day

one-shot & simple

1,200 to 7,000 word length

one primary scene

no more than 150 words of exposition

2-15 minutes pre planning

max 10 minute editing

 

Got it? Good! Now onto the next part: outlining. 6 Outlines you’re welcome to use to get you from here to there.

 

 

 

 

 

 


	3. 6 outlines

Well, since I’m issuing a writing challenge aimed at newer writers, wouldn’t it be just darned rude of me to NOT offer a few outlines to help out? There are 1001 different techniques that can be used for figuring out what happens in your story, and this really is a case of you needing to try a few things to see what works. But also try to keep an open mind to some of the other methods, and you may find one or part of one that works better for certain types of scenes too.

 

All of the below are outlining methods that I’ve used myself, and I’ve tried to break them down into the simplest bare bones steps so that they’re flexible for different lengths and genres. I know that, when I started, I really needed more of a framework in place than I use now. So my recommendations are to look through the below outlines, see which one appeals to you based on your style and level of experience, and spend a few minutes testing your story idea through the framework. Hopefully this will help you see some of the speedbumps ahead of time and discover any missing pieces now so you don’t ave to stop your writing momentum to figure out what o do about them.

 

These are roughly organized by level of detail, starting with just a few plot points to keep in mind for the pantsers among us down to a more developed 12-part structure for plotters. All of these can also be used to test an idea and see if there’s enough interest there to make it into a story, too.

 

Outline 1: the core idea

what scene do you really want to write? Like deep down, what’s the scene you’ve been REALLY wanting to read but it hasn’t been written yet? Write a few notes where you distill the core idea of what you want to read and write from the background noise in your mind. Start writing once you have a reasonably clear idea what the topic is.

 

Outline 2: plot points

beginning situation (figure out now where there characters were right before the opening scene)

this situation leads to a conflict/crisis/or an event that requires action to be taken

how do you want the story to end? Figure this out now in rough terms ala ‘story ends with Kylo knocking Rey out and dumping her on his shuttle, fade to black’

actions taken to get from beginning to end, ala the meat of the story. If you’re a true pantser and you don’t know this yet, start writing now but have a piece of paper handy and jot down any actions/dialogue/appealing stuffs that come to mind as you write the beginning.

 

So that’s done, I’m thinking this outline 2 will probably be around 5-10 sentences. Here’s a short example of how I’d do this outline for Going Down in Flames:

Kylo and Rey are arguing in an elevator, 1st Force connection since Crait.(beginning prompt). After they boink, Kylo or Rey wakes up and realizes this was a dream and not a force projection, opening up a whole new world of nocturnal naughtiness between them. (ending prompt, now work in the middle). Middle notes: suggestion at weirdness going on to hint that this isn’t a standard force connection moment, make it a sweeter sex scene, Kylo is way more concerned about getting Rey off then himself in the hopes she’ll come back for more in the future, something with the elevator security camera.

 

Okay, outline 3: the ask yourself questions method

1: what do you want the tone of the story to be? Funny? Romantic? Angsty? Heartbroken lovers torn apart like two ships passing in the night? Can you think of a scene, either from the movies or of your own creation, that signaturizes this tone? (and yes, I know signaturizes isn’t a word, but it should be). If it’s a scene from the movie, how can you change or exteeeend it into something more?

2: How long and how many chapters do you want? For the sake of this challenge I’m trying to encourage 1-shots, but if you were doing a longer multi-chapter piece now’s the time to figure that out!3: how does the above fit with outline 1: what you really want to read and write about? It fits, right?

4: what is the core conflict? The C of the AROC? What does the main character want but what’s keeping him/her from that want? (if you’re doing a 1 character introspection, remember that it doesn’t have to be a person that’s opposing them or it could be a past event or even themselves)

5: does the character get their goal or move closer to their goal? Why or why not? Now take that why or why not and think backwards.

6: write baby, write

 

outline 4: the snowstorm method (a variation of the snowflake method, btw)

Step one: rewatch your favorite scene/s from the movie, spend a few minutes re-reading your favorite fanfiction scenes. Get in the zone and turn off your distractions (music may help). Sit your ass down and starting writing anything that comes to mind, it could be a line of dialogue or a setting description or even single word prompts or kinks (ala ‘glove kink’). Keep doing this and chances are your prompts and ideas will become a little longer and fleshed out the more you think about them.

Step 2: when you feel your creativity slowing down, stop. Go do something else for a minimum of 10 minutes and maximum of a few hours.

Step 3: go back to your notes, and circle the ones (up to maybe 5 or so?) that you feel the most inspired by. Note that I said ‘inspired by’ not the ‘ones you think have the most potential’, though they might have overlap!

Step 4: pick one or two favorites, close your eyes and visualize the scene (or go for a walk and think about it). Let the scene play out like a movie.

Step 5: write baby, write! (but do keep the note paper for future projects)

 

outline 5: the scene builder

Here we’re going to take outline 2 and expand on it. Follow steps one to 3, but when you get to figuring out the conflict we’re going to develop it some more.

Run the AROC through the plot a few times. Think of at least 3 concrete, action/dialogue driven examples of the conflict and opposition in action (ie. show not tell). These 3 examples are going to be the meat of what happens in your story.

Now we’re going to spend a little more time on that ending. In chapter 4 I have a whole section on ending techniques, so maybe try a few from there? If you’re writing a short 1-shot smut (aint nothing wrong with that!) your ending point will shift back. Don’t think of it as an epilogue, but here it will become the final act of their… well, the final race to the finish line of their sex scene. I feel kinda weird breaking down a smut scene like this, but the ending could be when they first start having penetrative sex or, say it’s a bdsm piece with a blindfold kink (maybe I’m projecting…) it could be the final act of submission when the sub character fully gives him/herself into the safe control of the dom. A non-smut example from my own stories would be the ending of A Game of Strategy, Not Chance (I really don’t ave much non smut, work with me here) when Finn wins the game and saunters off, leaving Kylo and Rey to fuss cutely at each other over whose fault losing was.

 

Outline 6: the 12 part structure

(note that, if you’re like me and you can’t freaking write short to save your life, this outline will only exacerbate the problem. BUT if you’re writing a longer piece or multi-chapter, this is one of the methods I use regularly. Or you could just write non-ridiculous length pieces, that too :P)

step 1: follow steps 1-4 of outline 2, but do it kinda quickly. This is just to point you in the right direction. Example: tone: sexy but romantic smut, Objective: Kylo wants to talk/seduce Rey, conflict: Rey’s still pissed off at laser brain, action: bickering in an elevator, reaction: all the force bonding and close spaces with no supervision makes them horny dot dot dot

cool, that’s done, now let’s get to the 12 sentence outline:

act 1, s1: how does it start? Identify exactly, in one sentence, the story begins

s2: what doubts/reluctance,conflict springs up immediately?

S3: what event or action occurs to propel the characters to confront/overcome the conflict?

(there’s your beginning, now onto the middle, divided into 2 parts)

act 2, s4: 1st step the charters take towards their objective

s5: the core conflict does something to get in the way (show not tell, of course!)

s6: progress is made towards the objective

(s6.5, here right in the middle is a good place to have a short little tidbit relating to the central THEME, ie if it’s a sweet romance, let the main character have a sweetly romantic thought about the other here)

s7: time for another setback to progress, big or very small but you can’t just make it too easy

s8: more progress is made (if this is a smut scene, by now they’re probably really getting into it, literally or otherwise lol)

s9: a turning point where the objective takes over (ie. they start fucking)

(act 3 time, this could be your ending sequence already)

act 3, s10: objective and conflict battle it out (so even if they’re happily fucking right now, through in some emotion behind it)

s11: climax (heh… or, if you’re NOT smutting it up, this is where everything comes to a head and the objective overcomes the conflict)

s12: resolution (the smoking f the cigar and tangled sheets, the force-clunking Rey over the head and carrying her back to his ship doors close in our face, the sad realization that they’re love simple can’t be (YET!) and one runs away from the other)

and done! Pat yourself on the back, take a break, and then write baby, write!

 

 

 

 

Okay, so there you go. All of these outlines I think COULD work for different styles of writers, you’ve just got to Cinderella it a little and find the right fit for you. I personally use method 1 for my short smuts, and method 5 for my shorter multi-chapters (that’s how I’ve outlined The Path That Moonbeams Make, btw). Remember that these are all tools at your disposal, so take away pieces and use only part of one method or use several and outline the same story multiple times. The more practice you get, the faster and easier this step will be, but don’t ever forget the final step of every outline method because that’s really the most important one!


	4. Technical stuff

 

Right, now we’re onto the tech talk portion of this ‘WTF am I doing and is anyone even going to read this?!’ fanfic-slash-writing-guide. Here, boys and girls, I’ll cover some of the tricks and general knowledge I’ve picked up regarding the actual publishing funstuffs. Hopefully you’ll find something here helpful, and a lot of it is just common sense distilled that you can use as a reference if you get stuck at a certain point.

 

1\. where to publish?

For me, there are three main places to publish your shiney new fanfic: fanfiction.net, archive of our own, and tumblr. There are other niche places, “social media” (put in air quotes because I abhor it in all forms and can’t say much more), and Wattpad. Let’s do Wattpad first: I don’t like it, and I don’t recommend it for fanfiction. It’s not _really_ a fanfic repository and you’re going to have a very limited audience vs. a whole lot of outspoken naysayers who will hate on your story just because it’s fanfic (and they probably won’t even read it anyhow, just shit talk it). There also is a frequent problem with IP theft, ie. people there just stealing your shit and claiming it as their own. So really, there’s no upside to Wattpad and it should avoided. IMO of course.

 

Next is Tumblr. Hmm… this is a complicated one. Let’s do pros and cons.

Pros:

big, thriving Reylo community

lots of fanfic on there, a good audience

easy to use interface

many good people on there, but also many bad

 

cons:

massive, ugly fandom wars frequently erupt and many parts of the Tumblr community is profoundly toxic (though again there are many good eggs in the Tumblr basket, just be prepared to wade into it)

not really designed for fanfiction so it’s not particularly comfortable to read stories, especially longer stories

lots of random postings all the time so, unless you already have a name for yourself and some fans, you’re probably just going to get lost in the shuffle

 

I’m on tumblr (feel free to say hi to me at[ lost-inthesunlight](https://lost-inthesunlight.tumblr.com/) !) but I keep a pretty low profile there for the above reasons. I mostly just comment and like other people’s stuff, and occasionally post a piece of smutty fanart I’ve darn, or announce a posting of a new chapter or something like that. Speaking of, here’s the promo pic for the story in ch5 of this!

So, Tumblr: mixed bag, definitely not newbie friendly and many authors have had horrible experiences and have sworn off it. Maybe I’ve just been lucky or maybe because I don’t really use it for other than mostly kudos-ing other people.

 

Archive of our own:

Ah, good old AO3. If you’re writing fanfic, you’re posting it here period. The biggest audience and the best interface and all around experience. There isn’t too much bad I have to say about AO3, but be aware of:

occasional asshole commenters trying to start shit (not a huge problem, but it does happen. Loathe am I to quote Taylor Swift, but shake it off baby)

no PM-ing. This one’s a bit of a drag because it would be great to chat with your favorite authors directly but you can’t. I suppose this is because AO3 doesn’t want to have to monitor private messages too because they have their hands full, but phooey…

Sometimes laggy and glitchy. I’ve twice had my chapters eaten, so always keep those backups. Also, when you post a fic, the announcement email doesn’t go up for anywhere from 30-60 minutes after posting so just be aware of this and don’t freak out thinking it’s vanished/not posted.

Um… I guess that’s about it? Yeah, Ao3, good stuff. Post yo shit here.

 

Fanfiction.net

Heh, okay, I’ve got some things to say about oldie ffn.net. Let’s do pros and cons and I know there’s going to be way more cons so let me just preface this with saying I DO recommend posting on ffn.net overall, just be aware of…

PROS

huge fanbase, though smaller than AO3

readers overall seem nicer and you’re less likely to encounter an asshat

PM system I place

supposedly there are message boards and sub communities? I’ve never actually checked

 

CONS

asinine categorization system

dinosaur of an interface (more on this in a moment)

readers, though nice, seem less likely to comment or give feedback

doesn’t accept E fics

need tech help? Well you’re just SOL then

older fics hit the cliff and fall off into obscurity much faster than on AO3 (possibly because of ffn.net’s hard to use search interface)

can’t respond/reply to reviews. Not even to thank them for commenting. Now that’s just rude. If I’m doing a multichapter fic I’ll thank the reviewers in the next chapter but, if you’re just doing a 1-shot, ya can’t. It sucks.

ca’t download fics like you can on ao3 (mobi, epub, etc.)

it’s ugly. It really is

no keywords or tagging

 

So, about that interface:

Ugh. Take a deep sigh. That’s step one.

You can either upload your story as a doc (it also accepts .odt) or copy and paste it into this obnoxiously narrow editing box. I find this c&p method often results in weird formatting and lots of strangeness so I prefer to upload as an .odt and fix the random shit they take out or in afterwards.

When you’re making a correction to an existing story or chapter, you have to go to: publish – doc manager – chapter to be changed – edit document – save it – then go to publish – manage stories – name of story – content/chapters – replace/edit chapter – pick new edited document – save- wait 30 -60 minutes for the corrections to go live. Having fun yet?

You’re given a much shorter space for a summary than on AO3, resulting in headaches when you forget this and are just trying to post your damned story.

M stories only and their ratings descriptors really doesn’t tell you what they consider M or E. However, I’ve read some pretty strong M rated fics there, so just use your judgment. ffn isn’t the place for XXX smut but you can get away with X1/2 smut. Technical talk. Yeah.

You may have to put in special symbols and accents like a horizontal line manually after you upload the doc like:

* * *

 

But, in conclusion, for all it’s many shortcomings and outdatedness, I find fanfiction.net to be worth the hassle. First off it’s not THAT much more work, and I consistently get anywhere from 25-50% of my readers there instead of AO3 (very fandom dependent, but even at he lower end it’s well worth it IMO)

 

2) ratings

Ratings I’ve pretty much covered above and in ch1 but I should mention that, if you post on Tumblr, it’s a haven of porn blogs and the skies the limit explicitness. If you’re like me and a raunchy porn gif shows up on your dashboard and you’re all ‘oh hellz yeah, better pound that ass big boy!’ then go forth and be filthy, young padawan. Just be aware.

 

3) keywords

both AO3 and tumblr use keywords to tag yo shit, fanfiction.net doesn’t. AO3 has a pretty robust auto-suggest feature as you start typing so I just stick with that and use its suggestion on both AO3 and tumblr too. I’m not sure exactly how much keywords help with your visibility, though. When I first started I experimented around with tagging and didn’t really notice a difference

3) caution about outside links

All three sites (AO3, ffn.net, and tumblr ((see the Oxford comma there? f’ing right)) have rules against outside links. Sort of. Their rules vary tremendously, so it’s important you know what is and isn’t allowed.

Fanfiction.net: doesn’t support links at all. Not outside, not internal. Like you literally can’t link to your own story on ffn.net through ffn.net. Deep sigh. I mean, you CAN do that horribly dumb old think of spelling the link out like yourname ‘slash’ something ‘slash’ chapter 3 ‘dot’ ‘com’ but no one’s going to type that shit out. Dear fanfiction dot net: this is stupid. Truly.

 

Tumblr: Tumblr is generally cool about links, outside and internal. For the most part it’s all good, BUT they allegedly drop the visibility of your posts if you link to a payment service like ko-fi (like the one I may or may not have on my artwork gallery section of  my [tumblr](https://lost-inthesunlight.tumblr.com/)), or patreon or whatnot. A while ago I found this post about a possible workaround (https://star-beam.tumblr.com/post/177808504825/smols-darklighter-dornisaurio-lycisca-sick), but I don’t know if it works or not. Do let me know if it does!

Also, if you’re reading this guide of mine on ffn there’s a good chance they’ve auto deleted much of the above paragraphs and links. I’ll try to fix them as I can, but seriously ffn overlords, fuck off and just let us link like normal people, mmhmkay?

 

AO3: Now AO3 is an interesting hybrid and there’s a reason I’m mentioning it last. For the most part they allow outside and internal links BUT DO NOT directly post to any pay service ala kofi etc. You can, however, post to your tumblr and have a secondary linking post there per the above instructions, but just remember that AO3 forbids money making (it’s a big part of their whole ‘fanfiction isn’t IP theft creative commons’ thing) so just be cool and play by their rules. Don’t be a dick, be a dude.

 

Now onto some tech talk for your actual story:

 

5) the blurb

Blurns, inherently, suck to write. So much so that there are literally professional services that professional authors hire and pay to write their blurbs for them. But I have a few tips that can hopefully point you in the write direction (pun intended). And, Spokane, if you happen to read this, I sent you a few blurb tips back when you were writing Exploration, let me know if I’ve missed any of them here, okay?

Tip 1: the JSB method:

James Scott Bell recommends this basic structure to get you through the ordeal of blurbing (or as he refers to it, writing the cover copy ;)

Sentence 1: Character name, job, and opening situation.

S2: the words ‘But when’ and the opening crisis or turnin point.

S3: ‘Now’ and what the main character is going to do about the crisis and the stakes at risk.

Example for The Force Awakens:

Rey is an orphaned Scavenger who is just struggling to get by while dreaming of a better future. But when a strange robot crosses her path, she is drawn into a galactic war and swept far away from her humble homeland. Now, with the help of a band of unlikely allies, Rey must find a way to defeat the evil First Order and find out what her true place in the universe really is.

 

Er, okay, that was one shitacular blurb example. Sorry about that. BUT, maybe you still get the idea? James Scott Bell is a thriller writer, and I feel like his method is more suited to thriller fiction than fanfiction but I just had to include it here anyhow. If you’re really stuck, give it a try. What’s the worst that could happen? You end up with a mediocre blurb that you can sort of tolerate-ish but it’s all you’ve got so you’re going to use it anyhow? Welcome to the club, my friend, you’ve just entered the writing life.

ps. I think the JSB method can also be used when you’re first _p_ _lanning_ out your story, too, just to test drive an idea and see if it holds water.

 

Blurb technique 2: (did I call it a tip earlier? I think I did. Eh…)

Use a sneak peek into the story. Find a few of the zestiest lines of either dialogue, internal thoughts, or maybe a little bit of the raunchy action and use THAT as your blurb. The whole idea is to find a really tempting nugget to get readers to sink their teeth into. Example (and forgive me for using my own stories as examples, I feel weird using other people’s)

[The Path that Moonbeams Make](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15723915)

 

“ _Do you know why I chose you, Rey?” Kylo asks. “Why I picked you out of the hundreds of other women my kingdom presented to me?”_

_Rey narrows her eyes. Glares at the moon peaking through the bars in the window. The land outside calls to her, offering her a life of freedom she has now been denied by this sham of a marriage._

_Kylo reaches out to stroke her cheek and she slaps his hand away without thinking about it. Crown Prince of Alderaan or not, Rey wants absolutely nothing to do with her new husband._

“ _Ah, there it is, Rey,” he says lowly, his gaze darting from her eyes to her lips then back. “There’s that same look you gave me when I tried to kiss you during our ceremony. Truly you will make a fine wife.”_

 

and from [Still of the Night ](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12919992)

“ _Oh great, I get the love birds.”_

_To say that Bodhi was displeased about having to share a tent at night with Cassian and Jyn was a great understatement. It could be more difficultly described as ‘you two can sleep outside, I’m so over this already’._

 

blurb technique 3: the thoughtfully crafter cheaters exposition method.

I’ve gotten on you about not slowing down your story with too much exposition, right? Well here’s a way that you can sneak some into the blurb. Think about what’s happening right before the story starts and the events that lead up to the first opening sentence, and build your blurb around _them_. This lets you get your exposition in and have the reader’s mind in the right place right from the get go. Now this takes a good bit more effort to get right, but it can be a great tool.

Example from my very first story where I did this exposition reveal in the blurb deliberately:

 

_Shortly after recovering from his injuries, Kylo orders the First Order research staff to make a full investigation into Rey's history. Unfortunately, all his years of terrorizing the crew backfire on him when they turn in a badly incomplete report just to get him off their backs. Naturally Kylo completely misinterprets what the lack of information about her personal life really means._

 

technique 4: the missing internal monologue

 

Perry Downing uses this a lot in her blurbs. Have a short paragraph or two showing the reader where the main character’s head is at. Again, you gotta make it exciting. Blurb are not the time for ho-humness. Example from [Bring the Whole Galaxy to Ruin](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13034778)

 

_For some terribly misguided reason, Rey had thought that it would be a fun idea to tease Kylo, her secret lover._

_Surely, if they were in a public place, he would be able to control himself? His own mother was going to be in the same room as them, for kriffssake. And it was a supremely important meeting on top of that. That means that he’s going to have to be on his very best behavior, right?_

_Right?_

 

 

techniue 5: the final sentence question?

Another popular blurb technique is to end with a lead in question along the lines of ‘Setting the scene, but will CHARACTER be able to overcome CHALLENGE or will SOMETHING BAD/SEXY HAPPEN?’

This technique can be a little cheesy, just FYI, but that’s fine for a lot of genres. Maybe just don’t use this one in a really serious piece.

 

6) writing strong, unputdownable beginnings

 

In the world of ebook publishing, the three most important things to nail are (in order): the cover, the blurb, the first paragraph. Then to a lesser extent the first 10% ‘look inside’ preview. For fanfiction it’s your blurb, your first paragraph, and then more distantly your tags.

If you already have a clear intro in mind, go with your gut. Use that one. If you don’t, here are some tried and proven methods that other authors have used:

1\. the dialogue intro

Have 2 characters (or up to 3 but more than that is tricky even for veteran authors) and they are in conflict with each other. This doesn’t mean they’re enemies (though this is Reylo so…), but it could be that they’re on the same side but with somewhat opposing goals. For instance, in a Rogue One story, it could be a scene where Cassian and Jyn are planning a heist or something and Cassian wants the safer approach where Jyn insists on her trademark shoot first then shoot some more style. Same goal, conflict over the methods.

Dialogue make a very effective opener becomes it immediately gets things happening right from the very first sentence (the whole goal of the intro paragraph).

 

2: the sudden disturbance to the equilibrium

“By the time Rey got back, her ATAT was trashed and an unexpected visitor had his boots propped up on he remain of her only table.”

“All the legendary Luke Skywalker wanted was to suck some green milk straight out of the MILF Critter’s titties, but then he heard the roar of a ship engine breaking atmosphere.”

“The Stormtroopers told Hux that Kylo Ren was now their new Supreme Leader.”

 

Right, so, first sentence: something (usually bad) happens that DEMANDS immediate action.

 

Dean Koontz does this with pretty much every one of his stories and he uses this formula on his first line: a named character, a descriptor, and an immediate or implied immediate threat.

”Janice Capshaw liked to run at night.”

”You ever killed something?” (a character named) asks.

(my favorite opener ever)- “Tuesday was a fine California day, full of sunshine and promise, until Harry Lyon had to shoot someone at lunch.”

 

Great stuff. The one with Janice is interesting because it’s so powerful and yet concise. We’re already on Janice’s side from the get go because she’s caught out at night in a Dean Koontz book. Chances are Janice is about to have a real hard time, right? Creating empathy with your main characters is crucial in the beginning of your story (though a little less so with fanfiction because we’re here reading because we already like the characters).

 

3: the in medias res

That means in the middle of things, JSYK. Here you have your characters running for their lives from the flesh eating monster who appears on their ship (don’t even think about slowing down the action with explaining how it came to be there and how they didn’t know about it until blah blah, they’re freaking running here, thinking back later!). Or, from At Least He’s Hot, Kylo and Rey are already tearing their clothes off and backing up trying to find a sturdy horizontal surface. Do you really care how they got there or do you just want to read about them screwing messily?

 

4: the quirky opener

From the Postman Always Rings Twice: “They threw me off the haytruck at noon.”

or

“The doctor shined the light into (character name’s) mouth, held it with first steady then shaking hands, before announcing that “he’s never seen _that_ before.”

That line’s actually from Survivorman, ha!

 

But if you have a fun/strange/unputdownable opening line use it but remember that it better be followed by immediate action!

 

One very common mistake to avoid is the first sentence describing how anything looks. I’ve been guilty of this myself sometimes, but try not to have your story start out with Rey squinting into the desert, her tired eyes gazing across the rolling sand dunes toward the distance wreckage of what had once been a might Empire battleship that is now just a lonesome relic of days gone by. Please. Have Rey in media res, jumping down into the middle of the battleship. She can still feel the heat of the setting desert sun in the metal (all you need to establish the setting, really), but she knows she needs to find something, _anything_ worth scavenging or she’ll go hungry tonight. See, better already right?

 

Start with action. Crisis, action that needs to be taken care of now and not tomorrow morning after you put your boots and fresh socks on, but right damned now or (something horrible) will happen.

 

 

7) write HOT

I’ve touched on this before, but this is probably one of the most helpful technqiues I've read. Write the scene you feel passionate about. Write it will all your heart and don’t worry right now about overwriting it and making it cheesy AF. You can fix that later. Some writing guides say ‘kill your darlings’. By that they mean, if there’s any line or scene that you are just absolutely in love with, chances are it sticks out like a sore thumb and you should take it out. I say fuck that bullshit, write your smitten story the way you want to. Make it as big and dramatic and soap opera-esque as you like. You can fix it later, if you must, but chances are that there’s a whole lot of really good stuff in there.

 

8) about endings

 

Writing guides talk about ‘last page resonance’. This means ending your story with something memorable that sticks with the reader after THE END and, hopefully, compels them to immediately check out the next in your body of work.

 

Or, in the case of a newbie fanfic author, to press that ‘subscribe’ button.

 

Since we’re dealing with one-shots here, I frankly wouldn't worry too much about resonance. Have a final line that’s not a limp noodle of boredom and think more about how the third act of your story will bring everything together. One-shots probably won’t ave a lot of loose ends for you to worry about. I’m also not too crazy about downer endings (or downer stories in general, but that’s really my own preference so write what you want to!). A safe (and by safe I mean guaranteed to get ‘er done) ending is one that shows the characters have finished the scene but aren’t finished with each other yet.

For instance, in a smut, a surefire crowd pleaser ending is one where the characters post coital cuddle then start revving up for round two then curtain drop. Just let the readers know there’s more fun to be had off screen. Boom. Done.

 

The thing about endings are that they’re very individualized to each story. There aren’t any hard and fast rules, but the 5 main types are:

a happy ending = objective is gained

unhappy ending = objective isn’t gained

tragic ending = objective gained but at a high cost

sacrifice ending = the hero gives up hios objective so that someone else’s objective can be gained

open ended ending = the story ends in a draw or unknown, though it should go witout saying that you should probably only use this if there IS going to be a second part!

 

There’s also the twist ending, ala classic murder mysteries when you think the killer is dead but oops, someone else was the real killer the whole time. This is a fun but more advanced technique and it lends itself more to longer works than the 1 shot from this challenge. Still, something to keep in mind.

 

 

 

9) responding to feedback, reviews, comments

Why are you writing fanfiction? Why does anyone write fanfiction? Because you want attention to be given to it. Some naysayers say that you should only write for the sake of writing and feel completely indifferent if no one reads or comments on your story. Fuck the fuck off, please. If that was the case, then no one would bother wrestling with interfaces and tagging and all the uploading hassles and their stories would never be published because all the validation they need is coming from them self to themselves. I think there might ave been a grammar error in there, btw.

Anyhow, what was I even saying? Um, yeah. We all want feedback. I want feedback. I know I want someone here to read this monstrosity of a writing guide I’ve just spent my time on. Hopefully they get something out of it. Hopefully this inspires someone to write their first fic or write a new fic or just plain write anything. And if it has, do please let me know. I need sustenance and I’ve got a lot of doubts about why I even thought this project was a good idea to begin with.

 

So review other peoples work, kindly, and hopefully you’ll get reviews and feedback of your own.

What about negative reviews? There’s a chance you’ll get some, though I didn’t get my first one until quite a ways down my writing journey. Sites like Tumblr are definitely more prone to negativity and sometimes all-out aggression.

I like to reply to every review (more on _that_ in a minute!), even the negative ones. Sometimes not replying just causes it to escalate, so it’s best to address them and get on with your day. A tip to remember: your story is fabulous and the person who doesn’t like it is an idiot. Taylor Swift time again. For negative reviews or messages, I usually say something like “Sorry to hear that (you didn’t like it), but thanks for taking the time to let me know your concerns!” The end. Don’t engage. I stole that boilerplate response from a Dell customer service rep I used to know (ps. don’t buy Dells, I’ve got stories) and it acknowledges the reviewers complaint concisely. That last word is very important. Do. Not. Engage.

And ABSOLUTELY DO NOT DEFEND YOUR WORK. Acknowledge their feedback, mentally and completely silently flip them the bird, and proceed on with your day. Brushing off negative comments is part of the writing game, unfortunately, but not a really huge part. ALSO, you are absolutely, totally, and categorically (Oxford!) FORBIDDEN from using the word “but” in your reply. But is a defensive word and we don’t do that. You’re forbidden. There’s forbidding going on right now.

 

So what about positive reviews? 99% of the time that’s what you’re going to get (or 100% guaranteed if you follow my advice, oh but of course!) and I like to respond to each one in a similar manner to how it was sent. A lot of people say they have no idea what to write in a review, so I recommend just saying something like ‘loved this! Enjoyed reading this! Great story!’ etc. 2 words will do ya. To these I usually respond with a thanks so much for commenting! Sometimes I’ll add in a ‘glad you liked it’ or similar. Show your appreciation for the reader taking the time to review. They liked your story and you love them for it, so much happiness shared on both sides n matter how long or short the exchange is. It’s also just good manners, IMO.

Longer reviews also merit longer replies, but I’ll leave that up to you. Throw some personality in there and let them know they’ve made your day :)

 

10) missing something?

I’ve read probably 100+ writing guides over the years and I’m sure I’ve left something basic out. Let me know in the comments (cue review begging!) if you have any questions and I’ll try to answer them there or maybe in a future update to this guide!


	5. final notes

Final thoughts:

 

Well the story wasn’t particularly great. I can write a lot better than that (I say defensively) but… excuses… Well I’m writing a werewolf romance series now that has nothing to do with the SW universe and I’m rusty at fanfic. Plus I’m living off the grid and writing at all is a mix of my Alphasmart and charing my laptop on either my car batteries, solar panels should the Pacific Northwestern sun choose to grace me with her presence, and making 12 mile runs into town to catch a cellphone signal. So excuses, there you go.

 

Has the guide helped you want to write at all? I really hope so. If I can get even one writer to be tempted to make their first fanfic or a new fanfic I’m going to call this project a win!

 

One final word of advise is to have reasonable expectations and goals. Focus on bettering the things you can change and don’t hold your story up to a scale of things you can’t control. You can’t control how many people read, like, hate, or review your story. There are things you can do to stack the odds in your favor, but don’t start thinking things like “I’ll be happy if this story gets 10 reviews, unhappy if it gets less than 5”. That you can’t control. You can’t do anything about. Chose a more attainable metric of success, may I recommend the “publish story” button? Writing and publishing the first fic was the hardest for me, 2nd nearly as hard, and then 3rd on out much much easier every time.

 

Also, I need to write a second edition of this where I fix the plethora of mistakes. Most of this was written on my AA battery powered alphasmart and my spelling while typing on it is… not the best. And I’ve thought of a few other things I could mention like updating speed and tips for multi-chapter works. So please forgive the numerous errors here now, when I have proper computer setup again I’ll tidy this up and revamp the whole thing.

 

Until then, if you’ve made it this far you know that you have some work to do: 1,200 to 7,000 words. Don’t make me chicken ka-kaw at you. Now go on, git out of ‘ere, and start writing!

 

ps. once again, if you have any questions/comments/anything find me on tumblr at

[https://lost-inthesunlight.tumblr.com](https://lost-inthesunlight.tumblr.com/)

or check out some of my NSFW fanart[ here](https://lost-inthesunlight.tumblr.com/artwork)! 


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